I need to take a break from fan fiction. I am so, so frustrated with my reviews and views and likes and favorites. It is almost comical how much they've dropped off. It isn't so much a gentle slope as them falling straight off of the cliff. And if I'm going to finish these stories I need to take time to motivate myself, despite the fact that very few people seem to care.

I hate to be this author, and I promise it's only about 10% me being selfish and review hungry. 90% of it is the fact that I literally just don't care. If no one is reading this then why write? I need time to remotivate myself.

I will be back, I promise. It might be short or it might be a little bit. It depends partially on you and mostly on my own mindset.

I wanted to give this to you first though. It's cute so that's a good way to go. There are probably 3 or 4 chapters left of this.

Chapter 21

TPOV

It was almost amusing, the warring emotions that were present in his mind. He could scarcely be angry when he was locked up in a hotel room with two of the brightest people that he had ever met. The anger would creep back in and then Riley would say or do something so outrageous that he couldn't help but laugh or Spencer would sneak a kiss. And those kisses felt like the very opposite of anger. They were all butterflies and rainbows and staying in bed on a rainy day. They were all the good things in the world.

But even still, the fear and the anger were still there, just waiting for the time for them to resurface.

"Toby, you look like you swallowed a battery or something."

Spencer laughed and mussed up Riley's hair. "Have you ever seen someone swallow a battery, kid?"

Riley nodded seriously. "Some guy did it on YouTube. It was gross and I was just wondering what it would be like when he pooped it back up again."

And in an exact demonstration of his thoughts he burst into laughter. Where did this kid come up with this stuff? "Are you guys hungry? I think we're probably good to walk down the street. They guy at the desk said there was a pretty good pizza place."

Spencer gave him a look that clearly suggested that if they were alone she'd tell him to shove his protective stance up his ass. But she was as worried about Riley as he was about the two of them, so she controlled her less savory emotions. "Only if I can get mushroom," she teased, looking at Riley as though she were expecting some kind of reaction.

Riley immediately shrieked, and he wasn't sure whether it was in disgust or in laughter. Either way he liked the sound of it. It meant that she wasn't scared, and the fact that they felt safe with him meant the entire world.

"What?" Spencer questioned with a laugh. "You don't like mushrooms?"

"Mommy," Riley whined. "I don't want to eat anything gross. You know that I don't like fungus!"

Spencer laughed even harder. "Where did you learn that word?"

Riley rolled her eyes. "I was watched the Magic School Bus on Netflix."

Toby grabbed his wallet and shoved it in his pocket. "Are all four year olds this tech savvy?" He questioned. He was pretty sure that he wouldn't be able to figure out how to work Netflix, and he wasn't exactly sure what YouTube even was. Prison problems, he supposed.

"We'll figure it out," Spencer laughed. "But we don't know what Toby likes!"

He chuckled, beckoning them out the door with an arm. Riley skipped forward and Spencer followed just behind her. And honestly, as stressful as all of this was; as absolutely terrifying it was, it felt so good to finally be a part of something. It felt good to be a part of a family.

Spencer reached for his hand, carefully lacing their fingers together. Riley skipped just ahead, examining flowers and signs and other things. Every time she saw something unusual she skipped back to tell them about it. "Mommy! Toby! The trees have little flowers on them! And the buildings are so little! Can we live here forever?"

"Hmm," Spencer smiled. "I really do like Rosewood, but maybe we can come back for another visit when things are a little happier?"

Riley's face went from confusion to understanding in seconds. She skipped forward and launched herself into his arms. He caught her, hiking her up against his chest and she wrapped her legs around his waist. "I love you, Toby!"

Spencer told him that frequently that she loved him, and it felt good. But there was something about an innocent child putting that level of faith in him that was indescribable. He just held onto her for a second. "I love you too," he said so softly that he was surprised that she heard it.

Riley grinned and wriggled down, falling a good four feet from the ground. He panicked for a second, but she managed to land on her feet. Spencer laughed and nudged him. "She's an animal. You're lucky you held onto her for that long."

Riley huffed and skipped back to them. "I am not an animal, Mommy! I am a human bean!"

They laughed harder and Riley looked confused. "What?"

Spencer just shook her head and took her under her arm. She fit really well, and not for the first time he was noticing just how small Spencer was. Sometimes it was hard to notice, what with her larger than life personality. But she was just so tiny, so fragile. She needed him to look after her, whether she would admit it or not. She could hold her own with any of life's normal foes, but this wasn't normal. She didn't know what she was up against.

There was that sadness again.

He was worried they had passed the pizza place the hotel clerk was speaking of and was about to suggest that the double back when Riley spotting the sign adorned with a giant pizza. "That's so cool! Can I get one of those for my room?"

"Just to be clear," Spencer said, "you have decided that you love pizza so much that you need a sign that will take up half of your room to announce that fact to the world? And Ry, the sign has mushrooms on it."

Riley wrinkled her nose and stepped into the air conditioning. "Nevermind. That's icky. Can I have a High School Musical poster instead?"

Spencer laughed at her again. "That's a little before your time, kiddo."

Riley grinned. "I can't help that you're old, Mommy."

It was so lucky that these two were put together because any other woman in the world would have been offended by that. But Spencer just laughed harder. "Watch yourself, Riley."

Riley just smiled and grabbed the crayons in the cup in the middle of the table. She took a red crayon and started to draw an elaborate picture. "What are you drawing, Riley?"

She quickly covered it with her arms. "Don't look! Mommy, if it's beautiful enough will you put it on the internet?"

"You want me to put it on Instagram so your Aunt Hanna can see it?" She laughed. "Sure, why not?"

Riley nodded seriously and grabbed the green and the yellow. "Okay, don't look."

He leaned back at Riley's command. "So what kind of pizza are we getting?"

Spencer shrugged. "You pick. And if you want mushrooms the short one will just have to deal."

He didn't really know what kind of pizza he liked. Sometimes they got it in jail, but it was more like cheese on cardboard. He wasn't sure that they even used pizza sauce. "Maybe pepperoni?" That seemed fairly harmless.

Riley peeked up from her drawing with a nod of approval. "Yes. Pepperoni, not icky funguses."

"Fungi," Spencer corrected. "And I supposed that I can deal with pepperoni."

"Wait," Toby said, a ghost of a memory coming through his mind. "I thought you were a vegetarian."

"Vegetable?" Riley asked curiously. "Mommy, you're not a vegetable."

"Vegetarian," Spencer said. "It means someone that doesn't eat meat." She turned to Toby with a sheepish smile. "I don't eat a lot of meat, but I mostly said that just so you'd eat the steak."

That should annoy him. Dishonestly always did. But he struggled to feel anything but love for this crazy girl. And he would be forever grateful that she took a chance on a complete stranger. Where would he be if she hadn't? "Spence-"

"No," she laughed. "no mushy speeches. This is as happy a day as we can make it."

He looked down, his cheeks colored. He was happy. He was happier than he had ever been. But God, he was nearly crippled with worry. He didn't know what to do to make things okay for these two, but he did know that he would do whatever he could do to make it happen.

He barely registered Spencer ordering their food, but he did notice the greasy 16 year old's eyes raking up and down her body. He wanted to cringe at the caveman like tendencies this girl brought out in him, but he also almost could smile. He finally had someone... something... worth fighting for.

Riley squealed. "Okay! I'm ready to let you see it!"

Spencer snorted. "Let me call an art gallery, because they're probably going to want to hang it up on the wall with that level of drama."

Riley rolled her eyes, practically immune to Spencer's sarcasm. "Who's dramatic?" She ripped her drawing off the table cloth and slid it across the table. "Do you like it?" She grinned.

Tears immediately welled up in his eyes he took in the meticulously drawn crayon people. Three people stood hand in hand. The tallest had dots of blue for eyes, the one in middle had long brown hair, and the tiniest one had hair just like the middle one. Underneath she had written My Family.

Family. It wasn't just him who felt that way. Riley felt it to. They were a family of sorts. He was finally of value to someone. He was finally a part of a constructive group of people. He had a family and he would go to the ends of the Earth to protect them.